{"id":4951,"date":"2014-06-01T16:16:33","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T23:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recruitloop.wpengine.com\/?p=4951"},"modified":"2023-05-15T10:43:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T17:43:35","slug":"recruiter-tips-set-yourself-service-targets-not-just-sales-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/recruiter-tips-set-yourself-service-targets-not-just-sales-targets\/","title":{"rendered":"Set Yourself Service Targets; Not Just Sales Targets."},"content":{"rendered":"

As recruiters we can often get very carried away with the notion of winning new<\/em> business. But once the excitement of the chase and the thrill of the win are behind us (and we\u2019ve put the fee up on the board), the once all-important clients often experience a serious case of neglect.<\/p>\n

A few years ago when I was still managing a traditional recruitment business I conducted a piece of personal research where I asked all our clients for just one piece of feedback about their experience working with us.<\/p>\n

There I was thinking we had some great (perhaps even watertight) relationships with most of our customers.<\/p>\n

Who was I kidding?<\/p>\n

Now whilst a few positive comments came back to me, the majority of the feedback (and I received close to 200 responses at the time) wasn\u2019t exactly glowing.<\/p>\n

These are some of the real customer comments from my survey:<\/p>\n

You just don\u2019t think outside the box.<\/em>
\nThe recruiter didn\u2019t listen to what we really needed.<\/em>
\nPromise. Promise. Promise. But I\u2019m still waiting for the delivery.<\/em>
\nOnce I paid the invoice I clearly fell off your radar.<\/em>
\nI haven\u2019t heard from you in months.<\/em><\/p>\n

You keep telling me you have the best candidates; and yet they never seem to be available and for whatever reason you still need to advertise.<\/em>
\nFor a 22.5% fee I really would have expected a bit more follow up<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is what the clients who had taken the time to respond to me were thinking, imagine what the ones who couldn\u2019t be bothered responding thought about us?<\/p>\n

I was absolutely mortified.<\/p>\n

If you asked all your existing clients for just one piece of feedback about their experience working with you, what do you think they would say?<\/p>\n

How are you adding value to your customers today?<\/p>\n

What are you doing as an organisation or as an individual recruiter every day that sets you apart … from a service delivery perspective?<\/p>\n

The trick is knowing what \u2018value\u2019 means to your customers.<\/p>\n

How well do you really know your clients?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let me ask you this: If you send an email to a client and you receive an automated out of office reply telling you they\u2019re away on annual leave, do you know where they\u2019ve gone? Did you even know they were going away? Did the out of office response surprise you?<\/p>\n

What about this: You know the family photo that was in a frame on your client\u2019s desk when you last went to visit them (hopefully in the last 12 months!), well do you know the names of the kids? Or the husband or wife?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s far more to knowing your client than just knowing what vacancy they have open right now, or how much money they\u2019ve spent with you in the last year.<\/p>\n

Are your KPIs intrinsically linked to your customers\u2019 needs or just to what your organisation needs?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Agency owners, branch managers and team leaders probably won\u2019t like me for this one (oh well!) but if all your KPIs link back to sales or recruiter activity, then unfortunately you may have some customers who are having thoughts like the ones I shared above.<\/p>\n

What about having KPIs related to customer satisfaction or customer feedback? Or ones that measure repeat or referred business? Sure they will link to revenue but at least you will know you have happy clients.<\/p>\n

Many years ago I sat next to Kirk. We recruited in exactly the same space and just split our clients alphabetically. He worked on clients A-K while I worked on clients L-Z.<\/p>\n

Over a 12 month period we both did pretty well and billed almost exactly the same amount.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not exaggerating here when I say that Kirk\u2019s billings that year came from maybe 45 different clients \u2013 that means he was almost having to work with a different client every week.<\/p>\n

The majority of my placements came from no more than 12 clients with some coming back to me (often exclusively) every month.<\/p>\n

You could say that Kirk was more of a transactional recruiter (think \u201cbums on seats\u201d) while I like to think I was a consultative recruiter \u2013 going out of my way to add value and provide a service to all my clients.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still in the game. Kirk bowed out a long time ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat am I doing for you, when you might not have anything for me?”<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

In other words do you think about<\/em> your clients, or do you think for<\/em> your clients?<\/p>\n

Many recruiters will go into \u2018customer service overdrive\u2019 when they are working on filling a vacancy for a client. Constant phone calls; following up for feedback; email updates etc.<\/p>\n

But if they are working on another brief because that other client doesn’t have any open vacancies then what happens?<\/p>\n

Crickets.<\/p>\n

You want to stay top of mind with all<\/em> your clients. Not just the ones you happen to be working with.<\/p>\n

One of my consultants had a client once who was absolutely obsessed with Mick Jagger. He even had a massive signed photograph framed in his boardroom.<\/p>\n

Brian hadn\u2019t worked with this particular client for a few months at the time the Rolling Stones came to Australia in 2003.<\/p>\n

He sent his client a quick email. Something along the lines of \u201cI know The Stones are in town. If you\u2019re going to the concert, have fun mate!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out (of course) he was going to the concert. In fact he was taking a group of his clients and at the last minute one of them had cancelled. He offered Brian the ticket!<\/p>\n

The following week he called Brian with a brief for a $140K position in his executive team.<\/p>\n

He filled the role and the fee was $31,500!<\/p>\n

See … it really is worth thinking about your clients even if they might not be working with you right now.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Having service related targets and not just revenue based targets can definitely help you build stronger client relationships (or what I like to refer to as \u2018real<\/em>ationships\u2019) as well as customer loyalty.<\/p>\n

Without adding value, keeping top of mind, and focusing on service delivery you run the risk of lacking differentiation.<\/p>\n

Remember you can compete on price, value, or both \u2013 but always demonstrate value through trust \u2026 after all you want your reputation to open doors not slam them shut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A satisfied customer tells one person, while a dissatisfied customer tells 10. And that\u2019s before they hit social media. It\u2019s harder to win a new customer than it is to keep an old one. So how are you adding value to your clients with the service you\u2019re delivering?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66,74],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSet Yourself Service Targets; Not Just Sales Targets.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s harder to win a new customer than it is to keep an old one. 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